Experimental and numerical studies of liquid dispersal from a soft projectile impacting a wall

A medium-scale IMPACT test programme is currently being implemented at the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). In these tests, deformable cylindrical steel or aluminium projectiles impact a solid concrete wall or a steel force plate. One part of the test is conducted with a missile filled with liquid water to study liquid dispersal phenomena (i.e., wet missile tests).The fluid-filled missile ranged in length from 0.5 to 1.5 m, the water mass inside the missile from 15 to 68 kg, and the impact velocity of missile from 70 to 177 m/s.This paper describes the methods used to measure the liquid dispersal processes, and presents the main results for preliminary simulations of liquid spread. Because the IMPACT tests have focused on structural aspects, it was necessary to develop cost-effective methods for measuring liquid phenomena. The tests measured some important parameters associated with liquid: the discharge speed and direction of the liquid core released from the ruptured missile, propagation speed of the spray front, liquid pooling on the floor, extent of liquid dispersal away from the target, and the drop size of the liquid spray.The experimental findings indicate that the liquid release starts along the surface almost perpendicularly to the incoming direction of the missile and forms a fairly “flat” and uniform splash pattern around the missile. Although the discharge speed of the liquid core may be initially much higher than the impact velocity of the missile, the propagation speed of the spray front decreases rapidly with increasing distance from the source. Results of the preliminary simulations show that the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) program is a usable tool for simulating two-phase flows involving high-speed droplets, provided that the initial conditions (angle and speed of liquid release, droplet size, and initial air speed) can be specified appropriately. Given these requirements, FDS can reasonably well predict the formation of the water spray cloud and final distribution of water.